Brentford are ‘in trouble’, Smith admits

Dean Smith

Brentford boss Dean Smith admitted his side are very much embroiled in a relegation fight after their loss at home to 10-man Blackburn.

Shane Duffy’s late strike condemned the Bees to a 10th defeat in 13 league games and they are just six points outside the bottom three with nine games remaining.

Smith said: “We are in trouble. Rotherham have won again and we’re on a poor run of form, losing too many games.

“It’s a very demoralising defeat. The players are fragile at the moment anyway, so to concede late in that manner is disappointing.

“We’ve got an international break now and we’ve got to work hard on the training pitch and try and put things right.

“We wanted to be hard to beat today. Their lad gets sent off and you probably think there’s only going to be one winner then.

“I said to the players ‘The one thing is you don’t lose the game’, but our defending from the free-kick was very poor.”

Smith started with on-loan Everton striker Leandro Rodriguez and hopes the return of Scott Hogan will give the team a much-needed cutting edge in attack.

He said: “Leandro’s done really well – he’s bright and has lifted us in training – and I have no qualms about him playing in the Championship.

“And with Scott Hogan now back we have more competition and options up front.”